The press has an increasing number of stories about occupants left in hot cars that suffer injuries from heat exhaustion to death. In the summer, there are often stories of children, such as babies that have been left in vehicles during hot days, and the babies have died from temperatures rising up to 130 degrees F. or more. These stories often revolve around a child being strapped to a car seat, and left for as little as a short period of time with the windows generally rolled up.
This problem also occurs to others that are also not very mobile such as the infirm and elderly. Additionally parked vehicles in parking lots can often be found with pets, such as dogs, and cats locked in the vehicles during hot days. Similarly, the pet is left at the mercy of dangerous temperatures that can also result in injuries up to death.
The children, infirm, elderly and pets will often have to rely on the stranger passing by to be saved from these heat related dangers. Often the passerby will not be able to save the vehicle occupants unless the vehicle is broken into, and sometimes it is too late at that stage.
Various devices have been proposed over the years as heat alarms for vehicle occupants. However, a large number of such devices require sensors/transducers that must attach directly to an existing rear seat in a vehicle or a child's car seat. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,340 to Rossi; U.S. Pat. No. 6,812,844 to Burgess; U.S. Pat. No. 6,922,622 to Dulin et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,170,401 to Cole; U.S. Pat. No. 7,701,358 to White et al.; and U.S. Patent Application Publications: 2005/0225440 to Simmons et al.; 2005/0275260 to Patterson et al.; 2007/0096891 to Sheriff et al.; 2009/0277190 to Piette; and 2010/0090836 to Trummer
However, these devices generally require having a child strapped to an existing car seat or to a separate child's car seat. Additionally, these devices generally require the use of sensors, such as a pressure transducer attached to the seat that will only be activated by the weight of the sitting child.
These devices are generally not easily moveable from vehicle to vehicle. Devices attached to the existing car seats must be securely mounted and cannot be easily removed. The child car seat sensor devices generally require a consumer to purchase a new child car seat since these sensors are usually built into the seat. Most families with children already have their own car seats, and would most likely not want to change out a functioning car seat.
Additionally, child car seat mounted devices will not work for other passengers in the vehicle that come into contact with dangerous heated temperatures. For example, an elderly person or older child sitting in a front passenger seat or another seat not having the car seat alarm would not be protected against the dangerous heat conditions. Additionally, pets are usually not strapped into child seats or to existing seats in a vehicle. A dog or cat would not be protected by devices that are attached to an existing car seat or removable child seat.
Thus, the need exists for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.